


Heat

by KujiraHanma



Series: Tributes to Season 5 Merlin [4]
Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Anal Sex, Boys In Love, Boys Kissing, Canon Era, Hand Jobs, M/M, Season/Series 05, almost getting caught, no magic revealed
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-11
Updated: 2019-07-12
Packaged: 2020-03-01 05:36:43
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,786
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18794050
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KujiraHanma/pseuds/KujiraHanma
Summary: The tribute to season 5 Merlin continues.Merlin and Arthur have to figure out how to handle the heat that burns between them. Which appears not to be easy with all that physical attraction.





	1. Chapter 1

“You look happy”, Gaius said when entering their chambers early in the morning. He had been gathering herbs from a specific plant that was only distinguishable from another poisonous one when opening its blossoms at sunrise. “Very happy.”  
Merlin was sitting at the table eating breakfast, grinning even wider. “Did I caught you thinking about what let you smile that wide?”, Gaius started to tease a little bit and poked Merlin’s shoulder. The punch was mild and affectionate. “I think I have never seen you bursting with joy like that since you came to Camelot.”  
“Okay, that’s enough,” Merlin stopped the old man’s examination, “Am I not allowed to be happy?”  
Gaius had put the basket with herbs down to start processing the leaves, but instead he looked at Merlin for some quiet seconds. “Oh no, of course you are. It’s just … I wonder if Arthur has something to do with it.”  
What the old man could not see was that Merlin’s goofy smile had dropped for a second. He knew that Gaius suspected Arthur being responsible for the mark on his neck some weeks ago. “Not everything is about Arthur”, he worked his spoon absently through his food left in the bowl.  
“You don’t have to tell me anything. It’s good to see you smiling again”, the old physician said with a warm voice while he took the herbs out of his basket and started to remove the leaves from the stems. 

Merlin was happy and the source was undeniably Arthur. The unforeseen events that had happened lately made his chest swell from the inside, let fire run through his veins and butterflies filling his stomach. How had that happened? All of that? The kiss? The following kisses? This sparks between them – like thunder – were crashing through both of them, buzzing their bodies to life.  
The night Merlin had joined Arthur in bed … he would have never thought his dreams of happening. Dreams that occupied his mind when the sun was shining and did not disappear when the moon had risen. And now there was this sweet silence between them. It was nice. A sweet silence that promised a heat from deep within. Sometimes Merlin wished he could touch Arthur during a routine of their day, but hesitating he felt a bittersweet forbiddances rising. When he had to bite his lips to keep his hands to himself, trying to control the flashes of heat running through him when his king caught him staring.  
Having his breakfast finished, Merlin returned to his room to change into his clothes, leaving the physician for his duties while tying his red kerchief around his neck. 

First thing he did every day when entering the king’s chambers, he passed the bed and opened the curtains, letting light into the darkened room. With a short glace he checked if Arthur was still asleep, just to recognize his golden hair glistering in the sunlight between visible dust dancing in the strings of sunlight. Merlin did not dare to wake him up with a kiss. An urge he had to fight down with more and more self-restraint since an actual kiss had happened between them. He wanted to. Maybe Arthur was just waiting for him to. But what if not? What if he would end all of this with a single touch?  
Meanwhile he had called Arthur with one of his lame waking calls the king had stopped complaining about. A muffled grunt between the bedsheets was audible and Merlin stepped next to bed to remove a small fraction of the fabric from Arthur’s face. “Good morning, my lord.”  
Their eyes met – blue on blue. A sudden buzz pulsed through Merlin which was not his magic. Alarmed he went one step back. His mind jumped right to the morning when Arthur had pulled him into bed and had marked him with his own blood for whole Camelot to see. Averting his gaze from Arthur’s eyes, Merlin left the bedside to gather the other man’s clothes. He could not explain what had happened between them when their eyes had met, but his heart was racing. Merlin turned round when being sure Arthur had left the warmth of his bedsheets and had disappeared behind the wooden separation to get dressed. 

With the king’s clothes on his arms, Merlin was just standing there, unfocused. Something was still buzzing inside him that was not his magic. He looked at the separation Arthur had disappeared behind hesitating to come closer. He was not afraid but he had a funny feeling.  
It was … excitement.  
As usual he waited on the other side of the wooden wall until Arthur called for his clothes. He listened to the other man washing his face, drying it with a cloth subsequently. That was when Merlin did something, he normally did not – he turned around the corner. Merlin could see Arthur standing at the table that was holding his wash bowl. The white and thin nightgown was hanging loosely from the king’s shoulders, exposing his neck. Exposing his neck to Merlin. The young warlock heard his own breaths echo in his ears. The explanation why Merlin had completely forgotten about his self-restraint in that moment was hiding in the air between them. He did not know that molecules of attraction were calling him, guiding him and whispering a secret into his head. His eyes were drowning in white skin that was mostly protected by garments and armour from sunlight – soft skin and Arthur’s fine, blond hair at the nape of his neck. Unconsciously, he moved towards Arthur, who had still not turned around. Merlin’s tongue appeared between his lips and left a thin film of saliva on them before he pressed a wet kiss onto Arthur’s skin just seconds later. He could hear a sharp inhale from the other man, while Merlin’s nose was brushing golden hair and his lips disconnecting from hot skin with the loud sound of a passionate kiss. Holding Arthur’s clothes only under his left arm, his right hand was now holding onto Arthur’s side. Exhaling, his breath must have run over the wet skin he just had kissed, because he could feel Arthur shiver.

Arthur moaned into the touch. His hands grasping onto the table for stability and pressing against the body behind him as Merlin’s hand at his side came around his torso to press itself against his chest. A long exhaled left the king’s lungs and Merlin moved his lips again close to his skin, releasing a noise that suggested a deep desire. He pressed his face into Arthur’s hair and stayed.

What now?  
Merlin could not think. He wanted more. He wanted to stay like this.  
When Arthur grasped his hand that was on the king’s chest, Merlin pressed his lips against Arthur’s neck. Just a second this time – and coming back. Another kiss. And another. He kissed the area behind the ear, kissed down his neck to the vertebra of his spine and back up. Deeper kisses between the short ones and a passionate bite into Arthur’s shoulder when Merlin had kissed his way back up.  
Suddenly Merlin was forced around, his ass hitting the table and hearing ceramic shattering on the stone floor when eager lips were occupying his. From the sudden turn and the explosion of heat in his chest when their lips had met, Merlin gasped into their kiss. His hands were grasping Arthur’s night tunic as the other man’s tongue was entering his mouth.  
It was a kiss filled with desperation and heat – double masculinity and force – at the same time so sweet and passionate. Had Arthur been waiting for him to make a move? Because this was not just a kiss to claim. It was a kiss of affection.  
Merlin’s tongue was now sucked into Arthur’s mouth, animating him to take the lead. The warlock’s hands loosened their grip around the tunic and moved under it. They moved along hot skin to the broad back and up to hold onto the strong shoulders. He opened his legs to let Arthur in between. Just the thought of the touch that was about to happen let Merlin gasp into the kiss but before their groins could touch, Arthur was lifting him up onto the table. Their kiss continued while Merlin’s right hand rested in the back of Arthur’s neck, working his fingers into the short hair and massaging the sensitive spot. The king’s hands were running up and down his thighs. Every time the hands came close to his loin Merlin suppressed to move towards them. Just the friction of the touch tingled in his brain and heated his gut. He grasped Arthur’s thin tunic and pulled in over his head. It forced a separation on them they were eager to end, inhaling heatedly to continue the kiss.  
“Arthur?”, a female voice asked for the king just as his lips were about to hit Merlin’s again. It was Guinevere.  
Suddenly everything was happening in an blink of an eye. A look into each other’s eyes, Arthur’s step back so Merlin could hop off the table. Heat pulsing between their legs. Skin burning from placed kisses. Pupils dilated and breaths going hard.  
“Arthur? Are you..”  
“Gwen”, Merlin appeared with a friendly smile on his face behind the dressing area. He was holding Arthur’s white night tunic in his hands, covering innocently his groin with it.  
“Merlin”, she greeted him, but an eyebrow was rising in confusion, “Is Arthur behind..”  
“Yes”, Merlin stepped forward to stop her in her tract.  
“I am naked!”, Arthur almost yelled from the other side of the wood that separated him from Merlin and Gwen.  
“He is naked”, Merlin repeated while unfolding the king’s nightgown a little bit in front of him, still covering the bulge in his breeches – a goofy smile on his face.  
“Okay, I think I can handle my husband naked. But thanks for the warning.” Gwen’s smile was giving a hint of sarcasm only for Merlin to see. She was about to pass her king’s manservant as Arthur spoke again. Meanwhile Merlin’s mind was racing through spells he could use to stop Gwen without harming her and would let her forget that she had been stopped by magic.  
“I will come to you in a second. Would you wait for me at breakfast?”  
Gwen stopped at Arthur’s words and turned around. “Alright. But don’t let me wait.”  
When the queen of Camelot had left the king’s chambers, Merlin stepped behind the dressing area to find a frozen, half naked Arthur between clothes and broken pieces of ceramics on the floor. His gaze rose and their eyes met.


	2. Chapter 2

“I am sorry. It’s my fault”, Merlin spoke first.  
“No”, Arthur shook his head.  
“Yes, it is. I was the one who could not control myself.” Merlin stayed where he was, not sure of maintaining eye contact with the other man.  
Arthur relaxed himself and came closer to his manservant, carefully avoiding stepping on a shard of his broken bowl. He did not want to answer Merlin before he could speak to him up close. He could see the uneasiness in his body language. It had startled them both – Guinevere’s unnoticed entry into the king’s chambers, almost catching them in a very compromising situation. But then it had been Merlin who had been the faster one to react and saved them of getting discovered.  
When Arthur stopped in front of his servant, he said, “I want you. I want this.” Simultaneously, he laid his hands on Merlin’s arms – sliding down over the brown leather of his jacket. “I am the king”, he continued, placing his hands on the waistband of Merlin’s breeches and moving them under his tunic and up over the sensitive sides, touching hot skin. He heard his manservant sharply filling his lungs with air caused by the way Arthur touched him. “It is my fault, too. We should not hold onto our desires until we fail to suppress them.” He watched Merlin struggle in his mind between giving into the touch or putting an end to it. In this moment Arthur realized how difficult it must have been for his friend to fall for a man he would most likely never be able to show his feelings to. Not that Merlin had spoken directly about love ever since, but Arthur was no fool. Just the way Merlin reacted in situations like this told him more than words ever could – even though he remembered the morning in bed when Merlin had asked him to value of what was happening between them. Arthur liked it so much – discovering and pressing all the buttons on him until Merlin drowned in his emotions.  
His manservant grasped his arms and slid them off his body, “You should get dressed. She said that she doesn’t want to be waited.” Arthur followed the force on his hands off Merlin’s body. “Spend more time with her.”  
“You are not authorized to give me orders.”  
“But you listen to me”, Merlin talked back, a smirk on his lips.  
“We’ll see about that.”  
“I suggest a feast for dinner. Gwen and you. The knights. Some of your counselors. I can organize a band to play music.”  
“Okay”, Arthur agreed, “I have to admit, not every idea of yours is complete nonsense.” He hoped he did not hurt Merlin’s feelings by his last words. He just had jumped into easy banter.  
“Get dressed”, his servant smiled, “And I will come to you both to serve breakfast.” Merlin stepped away and turned to leave the king’s dressing area. “Be careful with the shards. I will clean up later.” Before he disappeared, he turned round again holding onto the end of the wooden wall. His mouth opened, but closed again. Then he left.

The dinner had been an excellent idea, Arthur had to admit. It was nice to hang out in relaxed atmosphere, music in the background and a delicious meal in front of them. The knights thanked for the generous gesture and were filling their bellies with meat and wine. Arthur went easy on the alcoholic beverage and ordered Merlin to fill his cup with water after he had finished his first glass of wine. Gwen next to him laughed at the stories that were told and visibly enjoyed the music that accompanied the dinner. Their eyes met from time to time and he could see how happy she was. He smiled back at her whenever she turned her head towards him.  
When Elyan started to tell a story, Arthur’s mind jumped to the evening he had spent with his knights dining after they had returned from their travels where he had kissed Merlin in the chambers of the tavern. That night, when he had offered Merlin to sit with them instead of serving, he had laid his hand on Merlin’s arm and a buzz had rushed through his body.  
And suddenly Merlin was next to him refilling his cup. He could feel the imminent closeness and without thinking about it – as it would have been a natural reflex, he brushed Merlin’s fingers with his. Time seemed to slow down for that moment. Arthur watched Merlin’s Addams apple jump as he had to swallow hard from the touch or what the touch had triggered inside him. His servant did not turn, just looked straight ahead. The air between them became warm and thick, breathing each other in, enclosing them into an invisible bubble. When Merlin started to step back from the table his fingers brushed back, causing Arthur to inhale sharply.  
“Arthur? Is everything alright?”, the king turned to his queen and looked into worried eyes.  
“Yes,” he cleared his throat, “Everything is fine.”  
When he turned his head slightly back, he could see Merlin looking at him with deep blue eyes. The full force of the eye contact hit him unprepared and took his breath away.  
How was that possible?  
The whole evening he had spent with his beloved wife. And for an ever so brief moment he shared a physical contact with Merlin. All Arthur wanted to do was filling his lungs with air and pressing his lips to those plump ones that were surrounded by short, daily stubble. He swallowed hard and tried to gather his thoughts as the remaining emotions caused by the moment were fading out of his system.

Merlin felt his magic pulsing inside him restlessly. During Arthur’s brief touch he had noticed the fire on top of the candles flickering. He had gotten hold of his magic almost instantly after the slip, but a short amount had left his body. Looking around no one seemed to have noticed the disturbance of the fire as something mentionable. When he met Arthur’s eyes, he could tell what was going on inside the king – because it was not far from his own state. But when Gwen had asked if Arthur was alright, a short pain penetrated his chest. Wasn’t he the one who had suggested Arthur to spend more time with his queen?  
After the meal had ended and he had helped the other servants to clean up, Merlin ran out into the woods. First, he wanted to saddle his horse, but then the idea of exhausting his body with a run had sounded even more pleasant. The physical activity felt good. Close to the lake Merlin was out of breath and he dropped to the ground. On his knees, he placed his hands flat onto the cool soil and let his magic flow into the earth. He had to use it. There was too much inside him. Sometimes it was getting too much for him. He sensed the needs of the forest. Spreading his magic further and further, he nourished the soil, helped plants grow that animals needed for food and insects to live. It was almost erecting how his magic flowed from his palms into the earth and the pleasure Merlin felt when his magic helped seeds to pop and plants to spring. There were great powers in him he barely used. Simple spells, when he could do so much more – much much more. But his magic was for Arthur and he was sure there was a day to come when he had to prove himself and the great powers of his magic. Defending and helping Camelot with it when the day had come to let Arthur in on his biggest secret.

When Merlin entered the king’s chambers the next morning, he found his bed empty – unused. He felt his stomach drop. Because it meant that Arthur had spent the night with Gwen. Jealousy rose inside his belly and poisoned his mind. Yes, he had told him to spend more time with his wife – the Queen of Camelot. The Camelot he would die for. And it’s king. But suddenly he felt helpless and sad for himself that he almost had to laugh. It was his destiny to serve Arthur, to help him becoming the king who breaks the law against sorcery and will set so many new foundation stones the future of Albion will nourish for centuries to come. Who he had fallen in love with years ago. But this was just sad – standing between the King and his Queen. Becoming a secret – again.


	3. Chapter 3

When Arthur returned to his chambers at sunrise, he was not surprised to recognize that Merlin was inside the royal chambers just from opening the door. The air that came from within told him, like a fairy whispering in his ear. He stepped in, looking at Merlin gathering his garments. When his servant straightened his posture and they made eye contact, Arthur averted his gaze to the cold stone floor. He felt Merlin’s blue eyes on him – piercing through him. Longing. Painful. Hurt. A glimpse of hope. Just knowing that those eyes were on him, how they were looked at him, flushed the inside of Arthur’s chest with emotions – tiny little insects crawling hot and tingly under his skin.  
Arthur raised his gaze and was immediately looking into Merlin’s deep blue’s. He felt the air escaping between his lips as he held the eye contact.  
What should he say? Should he say something?  
Because nothing said something. It said a lot.  
And when Arthur saw the blue irises vanishing, swallowed by dilated pupils, he could see the deep desire burning pitch black inside them. Black tongues of a devilish fire. Seduction. Arthur couldn’t breathe. He was caught in the black tongues of this hungry fire. 

Arthur wanted it. All of it.

His legs started to move. He closed the distance to Merlin and pulled him in a feverish kiss. One hand on the other man’s cheek, the other one in his hair, he breathed him in – a deep inhale through his nose, catching all of the scent that lit up his brain.  
Merlin pressed himself even more against his lips and big hands grasped Arthur’s biceps, squeezing them in response to their intimacy. Lips that were leveling up with his and rough skin with scratching stubble. Arthur was smelling woods, herbs and masculinity. He opened his mouth and licked between those plump and delicate ones against his, licking into the gap between them and released a pleased moan as Merlin kissed him back open and welcoming.  
Pulses of pleasure were tormenting his body – sweet and heated. He pressed Merlin against his wardrobe what lined up their torsos. Arthur felt the fabric of their tunics trapped and moving between their masculine chests and a shiver took him by surprise.  
This was so different from any night with Gwen.  
A gasp from Merlin broke the kiss between them and suddenly Arthur felt the urge to let go. The next moment their bodies separated and the king moved two steps back from his manservant. Merlin’s breath was going hard, his torso that had gained so much in strength by combat and duties, heaving visibly. And his eyes – the black burning fire – his eyes were swallowing Arthur.  
Then Merlin avoided his gaze, showing the king his handsome profile.

Merlin wanted to stop thinking. With his loins burning and his cheeks flushed from heat he wanted so desperately to stop thinking. About Arthur spending the night with Gwen, of adding secrets to secrets, of enjoying this so much and yet not being capable of fully letting go.

“What is it?”, Arthur asked and Merlin turned his head back to him. His eyes a mixture of longing and regret.  
“You have been with her.”  
“Yes. I gave her company, but I … we have not..” Arthur did not know why he told Merlin that he had not bedded Gwen last night. But the urge to touch Merlin again was overwhelming. Maybe some words were actually needed between them – for clarification, “I have not bedded her because the one on my mind was you.”  
Arthur could see something changing inside Merlin and when he closed the distance, a hand pulled Arthur in another kiss.  
From that moment, Arthur knew that the other man would not hold back any longer and that buzzed him with an euphoria of excitement.  
Arthur was pushed back and they stumbled a few steps towards the kingly bed. Arthur grasped Merlin’s brown leather jacket and pealed it off his shoulders – slowly as to savor in the friction of anticipation while being kissed restlessly and with fierce devotion.  
When the leather jacket hit the floor, Arthur started to kiss Merlin’s jaw, place one kiss after another on the stubbled skin. The neckerchief was still draped securely around Merlin’s neck and prevented him from going further. His lips felt the vibration of Merlin’s moan against his skin and Arthur recognized how his servant pressed his form even more against his king’s body. As Merlin would know what Arthur’s next intentions had been, he removed his neckerchief by himself and moaned again in satisfaction as Arthur placed his lips immediately at the spot where he had marked him once before. Where he had shown whole Camelot that Merlin was desired, that he had been kissed and touched. That there was a person that claimed this man.  
Arthur smiled against the skin, kissed and bit into the delicate flesh before he started to suck until he could hear Merlin lost in his moans.  
He loved it. He loved to hear those dark and throaty sounds.  
Playfully, Arthur took the sensitive skin between his teeth and was rewarded with their loins touching. Both man had to gasp from the still clothed touch and Merlin reconnected their lips, while Arthur was bathing in the heat this friction had caused inside him. Then, an urge started to form in the back of his mind. An urge to touch Merlin more, where he had not touched him before. 

Merlin was pushing them closer to the bed as Arthur pulled his tunic up and in a fast motion over his servant’s head. After the blue fabric had hit the cold stone they remained looking at each other. At glossy lips, blown eyes and heated cheeks. At dark chest hair and white skin.  
While their hot breaths mixed between them, Arthur placed his hands on Merlin’s shoulders, moved downwards and pinched the nipples. He was rewarded with a broken sound of pleasure while glancing down where he had not been before. He reached down and before Merlin could prevent him from his intentions, Arthur slipped his hand into the breeches, took Merlin into his hand and immediately started stroking him. He could feel Merlin’s body tremble under his touch.  
It felt so good. Having Merlin hard, wet and hot in his hand, his form pressed into his and hearing those beautiful moans so close to his ear. It was amazing. Touching another man, touching Merlin, let his heart beat hard in his chest, his loins burn and his brain clouding from lust and desire. 

The next move came too quick for Arthur to see it coming. He was pushed onto the bed while his tunic was pulled over his head. Regaining orientation he looked up at Merlin – flushed cheeks, red and swollen lips, spiky black hair and eyes dark as a moonless night. As fast as Arthur had recognized that his hand had slipped out of Merlin’s breeches, his servant had freed himself from all his garments. He was not even granted with time to look at Merlin in the glory of his nudity as without verbal permission his own clothes were removed. Experienced fingers knew exactly what to do from undressing the king for a complete different purpose for almost a decade.  
Merlin joined him on the bed, sat down on his legs and when he rejoined their lips everything blended together. Their lips, their bodies, their heat and sweat. Arthur felt Merlin’s hands all over his body, caressing his chest, scratching over his nipples what forced moans of pleasure out of his own throat, down over his ass and over his legs. Arthur’s body rocked forward as Merlin closed his hand around him and started to stroke him until he was hard and dripping. Merlin kissed him again. They kissed sloppy from needing air and moans breaking out between their lips.  
Arthur felt the weight on his legs shifting and air cooling his skin. Opening his eyes, Merlin was sitting on him, his head thrown back, exposing his neck with the blood-drenched mark. He could have sworn he heard Merlin mumble something, unclear words spoken breathy. But all was forgotten as Merlin adjusted his position and guided Arthur inside him into a hot and slick tightness.

Time stopped.

His breathes echoed in his ears.

Surprised by the environmental change around his cock, his eyes widened as the information processed in his brain.  
Merlin..  
The king was ripped out of his time dilation when Merlin began to move. Up and down. Up and down, squeezing the cock inside him. Instincts kicking in, Arthur changed position, rolling them around so that Merlin was the one lying against the mattress, without losing their connection. Being fitted between Merlin’s legs, he started to trust. Deep, fast, slow when Merlin almost chocked on his own spit, fast again. There was no gentleness, no sweet kisses or stimulating touches. Holding onto each other they found a fighting rhythm, filling the royal chambers with moans of the most beautiful kind. It was Arthur who found release first - gasping, grunting, panting and dripping with sweat – coming in that hot and sweet tightness. Lips were looking for his and a hand was guiding his down to finish what Arthur had started, until the body beneath him tightened around his softening cock and hot cum was hitting his chest.


End file.
